Canada clinches playoff spot at world mixed doubles curling

Canadians Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant have clinched a spot in the playoff round at the world mixed doubles curling championship in Geneva.

The Canadians ran their round-robin record to 6-1 on Wednesday, beating England's Anna Fowler and Ben Fowler 6-2 in seven ends, in their only game of the day.

“If we continue to play the way we're playing and we continue to get comfortable with the ice, we'll be in a good position,” Gallant said. “We're positioning our draws better than we were at the start of the week, and that's been the key to our game. Getting those angles set up, and we're starting to make a few more shots a game, and that's really been helping.”

Canada finishes off the round robin Thursday with games against Australia (3-4) and the United States (4-3), both teams that could still sneak into the top three in Group B and get into the playoffs, but Peterman and Gallant are already guaranteed to be playing on.

Canada will get in even if it loses both games Thursday to finish at 6-3. Only the United States (Becca Hamilton and Matt Hamilton) and Germany (Pia-Lisa Schoell and Klaudius Harsch) can possibly catch Canada, which sits in second place now.

However, should those teams win twice and Canada lose twice on Thursday, Germany still would be eliminated because it lost to both teams earlier in the round robin.

Canada can still finish anywhere from first to third.

However, Peterman and Gallant's chances of finishing first in the group are diminishing. Eve Muirhead and Bobby Lammie of Scotland are a perfect 7-0 and handed Canada its only loss.

Should Scotland continue to run the table, it will finish first in the group and will have a bye directly to the semifinal. The second- and third-place teams will have to win a qualifying playoff game to get to the semifinal.

Peterman and Gallant have two tough round robin games left. Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt of Australia beat Canada's Rachel Homan and John Morris at the Olympics in Beijing, while the Hamilton siblings from the U.S., were mixed doubles Olympians in 2018.

Peterman, playing out of Winnipeg but originally from Calgary, and Gallant, playing out of St. John's but from Prince Edward Island, have consistently outperformed their opponents in the tournament so far.